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French Word A Week - Pamplemousse & A Giveaway

March 26, 2010

Planning this edition of French Word a Week was a complete "house" collaboration this time around. My dad picked the word, my mom got tickled pink when I got her involved into styling the picture. What did B. do? What he does best: ate the props! A little family project is always a fun when there is French and English simultaneously flying around. I just watch and take it all in.

I admit I drew a blank when picking this week's word (too many options I guess) until I stripped it down to the bare essential of something we see or eat daily. It has to be grapefruit for us. My dad eats half a grapefruit daily, B. drinks a glass every morning and I nosh on grapefruit sections in the afternoon for a little vitamin pick-me-up. Mom? She buys them. By the crate. Especially when we are all together!

Today's word, pamplemousse, makes me think of plump, ample, soft, sunshine. It's one of those words I love to hear B. say outloud. It makes me giggle. You can listen to the pronunciation here.

Thanks to my mom I recently discovered the artist Catherine Martini who dedicates her work to painting all sorts of sweet things. I love the burst of colors, the shapes and subjects she choses to illustrate. Visiting her site always brings in some sunshine in the house. I wanted to share her work with you and thought a giveaway would be fun.

But...it's not all. I am throwing in a copy of "Unforgettable Desserts" by Dede Wilson which contains 140 thorough recipes for desserts you can make all year round. The handful of recipes I made from it were a hit with everyone so I am confident you will find something tasty in it also.

To enter to receive a set of 3 cards from Catherine Martini and "Unforgettable Desserts": leave a comment on this post (one entry per person) between Friday March 26th 2010 and Monday March 29th, 11pm (US Eastern time). Anyone can enter, I'll ship worldwide.

We will be out of town this weekend and since I moderate the comments manually, bear with me if you don't see yours appear right away.

i totally giggled at the "pamplemousse" pronunciation and i love that you can download it as an mp3. the cards are fantastic as well, especially les macarons (which are great in any form, even on paper!)

Hehe, funnily enough, pamplemousse is one French word that will forever stick out in my mind. When I went to French pastry school, one of my classmates would bring fresh "pamplemousse" from his trees for our instructor because it was his favorite fruit. :)

My boyfriend is the fastest grapefruit eater I've ever seen. I am the type that carefully pulls out each section to arrange on a plate for snacking through out the day. He on the other hand manages to scarf down the entire thing with no tools except his fingers. I've secretly been timing him, and lately, his speeds are somewhere in the 2 to 3 minute zone for a large grapefruit.

"unforgettable Desserts" has been on my "to buy" list since I saw it. Mousses and gelees are things I've never been passionate about making but would really like to try my hand at. I love your pamplemousse pictures!

Funny that's the only word I know in French. It's because my friend has been calling me that for a few years now, although I'm not plump or round. :-) She just liked the sound of the word. I love your website. I can always count on beautiful pictures of your scrumptious foods. Yummy!

Well now I am craving a grapefruit! Growing up I always shared them with my mother and grandmother at our ski cottage in New Hampshire - I used to eat them with a grapefruit spoon and leave lots of bits because I liked to squeeze out the juice and drink it!

You have such a lovely blog, and pictures are amazing. I love grapefruit in a salad combined with oranges and avocados, tossed with greens and some pine nuts, poppy seeds, red wine vinegar + yogurt + honey dressing. Yum!

how healthy of you all! :) Grapefruits always remind me of my grandparents :) we used to eat them by the halves anytime we spent time at their SW Florida home, and ALWAYS made our way back to Texas with several large paper sacks full of huge, plump Florida grapefruits :)

Such beautiful prints! I only took one year of French, didn't really think I had retained any of it until I was in a cafe in Paris with my sister attempting to choose drinks and snacks, and suddenly remembered: pampelmousse=grapefruit.

I always follow you silently from Italy... but how not to comment this time, first of all to say i love your blog, secondly to try to win those amazing cards...(what a great artist) and the book that sounds gorgeous!:)...then i also love pamplemousse...grapefruit...or pompelmo...as we say here in Italy!:)

I love grapefruits but my teeth are too sensitive to enjoy them too frequently. I usually like to use a small spoon to scoop out the fruit from my grapefruit half..and drink the juice that's made in the process from my 'bowl'. :)

I love grapefruit! An amazing name like pamplemousse only makes it better!

Up here in Canada we have the French printed on all of our food packaging along with the English. I didn't realize this when I was young however, and couldn't understand why anyone would drink "raisin" juice ...

Oh, I'd love to win this giveaway. The art is lovely, and recipes, I love 'em! Have a great weekend and thanks for your willingness to ship globally. I'm often disappointed by those who exclude intl. bloggers.

When we were seniors in high school my husband welded a "sculpture" which he entitled "Le Pamplemousse de Pouvoir." We still have it, I think, but I've managed to hide it away in a box somewhere. He loves grapefruit... Thanks for the giveaway!

mmmmm a new cookbook!? YESSSS!!!! Adorable artwork of things sweet?! DOUBLE YESSSS!!!!! Even if I don't win, I propose an exchange of some sort with you. I do hand dipped chocolates. I'd love to send you some! =)

Hope you had a lovely trip, and not too overwhelmed by all the postings. I spotted your swirly turquiose macaron months back. I have to say they really look like works of art. I was on the topic of macarons with my mum, it made me thought of you and your macarons. That's why I'm back for a visual treat. It's really hard to find good comercially-available macarons in Singapore.

Not only is pamplemousse one of the most wonderful sounding words, but the colour of ruby grapefruit is just perfection. When I was 10 we spent the summer at my grandmother's house and I was introduced to pamplemousse crystalisee. I'm not sure I would have even tasted it then - never mind loved it! - had I known what fruit it was in English. Thank heavens our tastebuds continue to develop as we grow up. And Macarons! They are everywhere I look at the moment. They seem to be following me, begging to be made. Soon, I will make them, as the memory of eating them on a sunny day in Rouen last Ausgust everytime I see a picture practically has me drooling.

My daughter and I share a grapefruit in the morning. I cut it in half and carefully cut around the sections and we eat it, one half each, with small spoons, slurping the juice out of it's "cup" at the end.

Mmmmhhh, once again your picture (or the food in it) looks so delicious! Just gorgeous!And yes, I also like the pictures and would be very grateful to win them and the cooking-book. Would be interesting to make new desserts...

I've always loved the word pamplemousse -- for some reasons it conjures visions of a big red mythical beast with a hump and wings. I guess the color is for the grapefruit. the beast, probably because i think of moose. seems crazy but i never forgot the word when I wanted my citrus for breakfast in paris!

I don't think I can say the word "pamplemousse" without smiling afterwards. My husband says I can't pronounce French words to save my life. Oh well. I'm still going to say "pamplemousse" all weekend. I newly discovered your Blog and I love all the photos of your website and the food makes me drool......

I really enjoyed this post, I think the French word a week is great, I have a number of french speaking friends and I'm trying hard to pick up on a little more. High school french never did it for me. But link it to food and suddenly it has so much more meaning! :)I'd love to be included on the Give-away please :)